Every country has its drug problems and the inevitable TV drama about the gangs that control it.
In Ireland it’s Kin, the US had Breaking Bad and for Colombia it’s Narcos.
Breaking Bad took a radical approach by keeping the violence low and focusing on the drugs empire set up by a high school chemistry teacher who was dying and wanted to leave some cash for his family.
This is where Gangs of Galicia may have the edge on the myriad of similar shows out there.
It’s a little bit different. A victim of the crime family is at the centre of the plot and not one of the gang leaders.
Set in the northern Spanish province of Galicia, it opens with lawyer Ana chatting on the phone to her father who pays the bills by hiring out his boat to tourists.
They’re clearly very close and he is desperate for her to take a break from her busy career in Madrid and come to visit.
But he ends the call quickly as his clients have arrived and hours later he’s shot dead on his boat.
In a shock to Ana and her mother, it turns out that her father was in a witness protection programme after giving evidence against the Padin family, the biggest drug dealing organisation in the area.
This only emerges three months after his death when his will is read out and he leaves money to two women his wife and daughter have never heard of.
Hurt that her father never confided in her and desperate to catch his killers and figure out the role of these other women, Ana gives up her job in Madrid, moves to Galicia and sets herself up as a new lawyer in the area.
She immediately comes to the attention of Daniel, the de facto boss of the Padin gang as his father Miguel is in prison.
He recruits her immediately to act for him on a minor driving matter and then sets out to flirt and charm her into working for the family.
She needs to get close to him to discover the riddle of her father’s life and tries desperately not to get too close.
Ana does have some allies though. The owners of the local bar and restaurant seem to be the only public opponents of the Padin gang and fear being the subject of a forced sale of their business.
They realise that they and Ana may be useful for each other.
Meanwhile, Narango, the head of a police anti-drugs task force is attempting to follow Daniel’s every move.
He’s tailed and surveilled but still manages to get a delivery of cocaine ashore after some initial problems meant that the bales had to be hidden off the coast for a few days.
Clara Lago is excellent as Ana, the scheming daughter giving Daniel just enough to keep him engaged while plotting to bring him down.
Gangs of Galicia is far from perfect though.
Some of the sub-plots are cliched, such as the educated son in law of Daniel who’s desperate to get into the family business, but the gang boss wants him to attend college and go straight.
Predictably the teenager ends up on the beach in the middle of the night taking his place in a chain gang, passing bales of cocaine from the boat to the trucks.
Overall, Gangs of Galicia is a perfectly competent gangland series which will keep you entertained but it’s not going to be in your top three shows of the year.
Watch it in its original Spanish for the full effect though.
